Ostuni is a medieval perched village on the east coast of Puglia. It is white.
"Driving through the beautiful Valle d'Itria, you will see Ostuni long before you arrive; the vast 'White City' rising high above the ocean of olive trees that sweep through this verdant area of Puglia.
Built atop a hill to protect from invaders, Ostuni is a certifiable labyrinth. A maze of alleyways, staircases and arches, of houses built upon houses, of hundreds of years of history laid out before you in a way no map can truly explain or capture. Dead ends and pretty little gardens, glimpses of the Adriatic sea, green doors and bright blue skies; everything and nothing may lie around the next corner you take."
While most of the whiteness comes from the natural stone, but these days it's helped along by a good deal of white paint.
Nonetheless, it's cute and its lanes were worth a walk through.
Much more interesting was a drive through Cisternino and Locorotondo, an area completely covered by trulli.
A trullo (plural, trulli) is a traditional Apulian dry stone hut with a conical roof. Their style of construction is specific to the Valle d'Itria. Trulli were constructed as temporary field shelters and storehouses or as permanent dwellings by small land-holders or agricultural labourers.
In the town of Alberobello, whole districts contain dense concentrations of trulli. The golden age of trulli was the nineteenth century, along with the development of wine growing.
Many have been converted to tourist accommodation but most are still part of local residential compounds when combined with more modern buildings. We were lucky enough to see inside one that is still in use - but didn't like to take photos. The doorways are very low and the rooms small but absolutely charming.
Martina Franca was a bit disappointing. It has one charming square near the cathedral and a couple of lovely buildings, but on the whole retains little of its past. I think we would have been better opting to stay in touristy Alberobello for our two nights in the Land of the Trulli.
After a tedious 16 hours on the ferry from Brindisi, we finally tied up in Patras, Greece. To get to Piraeus, the port of Athens and the ferry ink to most of the Greek islands, one needs to drive overland from Patras to Piraeus, a distance of 220 km. When we did this in 2013 the road was absolutely atrocious and I was dreading this repeat performance.
However, a new freeway has been built from Patras to within 35km of Athens (Piraeus) with a speed limit of 130kph. The traffic was flying across what I suspect is the only smooth surface in all of Greece and we made the trip in two and a half hours.
Arriving in Piraeus we were able to check in with Anek Superfast Ferries, the Cretan company with only a an hour or so to kill before boarding at 6pm. My beach chair came in handy and of course, Paul had arranged things so there was cold beer in the car fridge.
Next - Crete.
No comments:
Post a Comment